Kao Dao Ji remained in his aperture.
His face was red, in a mix of fury and embarrassment as he stared at a white cloud which had drops of water dripping from it.
What was in his hands was nothing else than Rain Gu.
However, it was not the usual Immortal Rain Gu he held under his possession, rather it was one which was at Rank 2.
Which he was trying to elevate to Rank 3.
His palms were raised, invisible force pushed the Gu above so it would not fall, whilst he continuously used all sorts of techniques to try to keep the Gu in shape.
Alas, they were of no use.
Soon, the Gu began to expand as a yellow light energy began to surge.
Before Kao Dao Ji could do anything about it, the Gu had blown up!
"Son of a bitch." Kao Dao Ji muttered under his breath, staring at the results of his refinement resentfully.
However, apart from resentment there was tiredness in his tone.
"Why is it so complicated and boring to Refine Gu????" He wondered aloud.
"During the whole day I've been doing practically nothing else but trying to refine a stupid Rank 3 Gu and I still cannot!"
His eyes turned red as he said those words.
During the past days, he had been trying to increase his foundation regarding Refinement Path.
How?
By Refining Gu.
Of course, his research was not towards inventing or discovering anything new or original, all he was doing was purely follow the recipes the Clan had long since prepared, and improved over several millennia.
As for the reason why he had been doing this?
Well, it was related to his future subordinates.
Whilst initially he looked rather optimistic and even hopeful of gaining some Refinement experts, he had realized an issue.
How could he ensure that they were not screwing him over?
If he had no basis in Refinement Path, he could not say for sure whether they were messing up with him and purposefully taking extra materials, or whether a certain refinement was truly that hard.
Of course, he could not accomplish tremendous mastery over it, under a short period.
But that was not necessary, as long as he could raise his attainment to 'ordinary', he could be good enough to not be fooled by most flimsy methods.
Something which should take roughly 3 weeks.
While this may sound absurd and exaggerated, after all for an ordinary Gu Master reaching this level may take over a year, but it was not so impressive truly.
Most Gu Masters were mortals ranging from 1 to Rank 2, such people, had limited essence.
Where would they find the energy to practice actively?
Furthermore, using individual Gu's was not really all that helpful for understanding the Dao, only the discovery of new things, application of Killer Moves, and a diverse usage and range of Gu Worms could truly give a person real depth and understanding of their respective path.
Which was why, generally only those Gu Masters who were Rank 3 or above had the qualifications to have Quasi-Master Attainment or above.
The others irrespectively of their talent, and efforts simply could not Cultivate properly.
Not only that, but most initial Gu Masters also needed to learn a large of things like how to feed Gu's, how to use them and what-not such things had long been digested by his counter self, and thankfully he inherited the know-how-to.
There was also the factor that while he had never mastered the depths of Refinement, he or at least his predecessor had been a Gu Master who ascended to Immortality.
And Refinement was one of the three trifecta of usage, refinement and feeding of Gu, even if he had purposefully avoided delving too deeply into Refinement, the basics had been engraved in his mind during this period.
Thus, all he needed was to turn that accumulation into understanding, far easier than starting from scratch.
Finally, there was also the factor of his intelligence, while he was not sure what he was, he did not felt that he had grown dumber since his resurrection, at the contrary he felt 'smarter', as if his whole being had been elevated.
Clearly this was related to the Immortal Ascension of his predecessor.
With all the advantages he had, if he still could not gain a basic grasp of Refinement in three weeks, then he may as well hang himself.
However, while progress was 'quick' in comparison to others, it still felt sluggish and very frustrating, several times he could not resist the urge to scream, as his hard-earned effort was destroyed before his eyes.
Like now.
As he observed the corpse of the Gu in his bare hands, his anger rose to the roof.
He threw away the Gu like a piece of garbage with the full strength of his arms, shattering the Gu into countless of pieces.
With still some rage, he used his Heavenly Power to extinguish the Gu to ashes through intense lighting, before his heart was finally put at ease.
He then took a long sigh, touching his forehead he said.
"Ugh…Working for so long, the stress is finally getting to me." He levitated and flew towards a nearby cloud, before letting his body rest on it.
Closing his eyes, he pretended to go asleep.
Unfortunately, he sighed.
"As a Land Spirit, unless I truly overdo it and push myself to the limit, I simply do not have the urge or need to sleep."
He grabbed the hairs in his head feeling somewhat frustrated.
The thing he liked the most after a long day of work was to take a rejuvenating nap, but since he became a Land Spirit, he could no longer do it.
"Oh well…Let's see if I can entertain myself with something else…" He touched his chin, whilst pondering over several ideas.
Suddenly, he thought.
"This has been in the back of my mind since I transmigrated here, however, since I lacked the knowledge about what to do, I simply could not even try it.
But now?" He chuckled.
From his aperture he took a certain Gu 'Memory Thought.'
Holding in his hands he said.
"Several times I've seen in several Isekai's about the protagonist suddenly inventing gunpowder and guns out of nowhere.
While I was a teenager, I even jokingly searched in Wikipedia and other pages about the material composition.
Unfortunately, all the relevant info went from one ear to the other.
After all there was not much point in doing it, there were far better guns than the ones I could create in the market.
Besides, the risks of building a gun are too high, you mess up even once and you lose your hand.
It was not worth it."
Now, however.
"Even if I exploded a kilogram of gunpowder right at my face nothing would happen to me.
Besides…
I am way too curious.
Can guns be made in this world?
Logic would dictate the answer would be 'no.'
After all, there was Fang Yuan and Thieving Heaven and neither of them created them in the novel.
And one may argue that they never had the chance or never needed it, but I doubt it.
Fang Yuan who was stuck at Rank 2 for centuries never had the motivation to create a gun?
And even if I assume that to be the case, what are the odds that not a single otherworldly demon built one?"
He lowered his eyebrows.
"Whilst Guns would be worthless for killing people on my level, they would be real useful on dealing with Rank 2 or even 3 Gu Masters.
And so, any tool that could enable mortals to defeat Gu Masters would surely have been useful at some point.
And yes, they could suppress it, but the Gu World's history is too long for it to make sense.
After all, could they truly keep a secret for over a hundred thousand years?"
No matter how he pondered, the situation did not make sense in the slightest.
The only real way he could explain this, was that guns were impossible to create in this world, but that also did not seem right.
After all what is so complicated about creating an small bomb to push an small object in a metal tube?
"This is too fishy! And I am way too curious to know the answer, before I could not even bother, for I had already forgotten everything.
But with Memory Thought Gu I can remember everything, every last-minute detail, can be grasped by me, and recreated.
Hell, with the resources I have access too, plus the tools that are unique to this world, I can create a gun that is even better than those from my world."
With those thoughts, he finally begun.
Firstly, he pondered.
"I need sulfur, charcoal and potassium nitrate.
Then, I need to mix and grind them perfectly into an individual substance.
Finally, I need to granulate it.
Just those simple steps and gunpowder can be built.
Regarding a gun, whilst building an Ak-47 or any of the sort is difficult, I really do not need to do something so complex.
At most, I only need to create a tube-like shape with metal, I guess I could built it like a hand cannon, whilst I only need to create an internal combustible like a lighter to ignite it.
For that I could use anything even kerosene Gu, or well, real kerosene for that matter, I do not need to make it really stable, after all, is not like I truly have the plans of producing this for the common population.
(Of course, depending on the results I may change my mind.)
This is just a tiny test." He muttered to himself.
Still, the excitement in his eyes was undeniable.
If building guns was possible, then anything else was too, including computers.
Just the mere thought of using computers, guns and all other tools from earth to give himself the edge against every other Gu Master made him excited, not that excited of course, after all there had to be a catch.
Still.
He kept trying to produce the gunpowder and the hand cannon.
The results were evident, it blew in his face and hands more than a dozen times, had he been an ordinary human he would be long crippled.
And yet those results brought no disappointment or rage like before, but instead there was eagerness, because if there were explosions, then surely, compressing those same explosions to punch an small object was not out of the question, right?
The minutes and hours went by, cold sweat covered Kao Dao Ji's face, as he observed his greatest creation so far.
A hand cannon which looked ten times more refined than the first ones, the gunpowder was also incredibly well-mixed.
With clear excitement, he tested the mechanism putting a round stone in the hole of the gun, whilst putting gunpowder at the back.
There was a clicking sound as an small piece of metal hit the powder, and soon there was a reaction.
The hand cannon begun to shine in golden colors, at the surprise of Kao Dao JI who stared blankly at the scene.
"This sensation…Is almost like…" The bullet was shoot through reaching the speed of sound, piercing towards a nearby cloud.
And yet that did not excite him in the slightest, instead his eyes remained fixed in the gun, as he had a peculiar realization.
"The gun, just as I finished building it…It actually became a Rank 2 Gu?"
In that moment, realization dawned upon his eyes.
"I see! That is why there are no computers, nor guns.
Because, just as the moment you create them, the moment they become complete, they cease to be.
And instead, they become Gu's." He muttered under his breath.
In that moment, he felt the unease on his heart expand, in that precise instant he said.
"What about other things? What about other Gu Recipes? Do they follow a similar pattern? Wait.
I get it."
"Gu Recipes, I never understood them well, while I could perform those steps, I never knew what I was doing, it looked like magic.
Because the steps never made sense, they were merely about creating an object that vaguely resembled the Gu or its properties, before it magically reformed itself into a Gu at the last step or failed, for some random reason.
But what if?
What if they were not a building a Gu, but something else?
But just as the object was made, the world itself seemingly in rejection of any other power, or sophisticated tool but Gu's, recreated it into the shape of a Gu?" His pupils widened, the thought itself sounded outrageous.
And yet, that was what his eyes had just seen.
He gulped down; the implications were massive.
His understanding of the world was flipped upside down.
And in this precise instant, he felt a sense of clarity that he had not felt before.
Several things that seemed elusive before, now looked clear, they solidified at the very instant.
Not in the form of Master Attainment, or even Quasi-Master Attainment, just Ordinary Attainment.
And yet, his views in the world had changed far more drastically than when he became a Master in Water Path.